Principal horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since February 1966, Dale Clevenger is a versatile musician in many areas, including chamber music, jazz, commercial recordings and solo performances. His mentors were Arnold Jacobs and Adolph Herseth.
Before joining the CSO, Clevenger was a member of Leopold Stokowski’s American Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony of the Air directed by Alfred Wallenstein; he also was principal horn of the Kansas City Philharmonic. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras worldwide, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim. He has participated in many music festivals, including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Florida Music Festival in Sarasota, the Affinis Music Festival in Japan and the Marrowstone Music Festival in Bellingham, Washington. He also participates in the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. In addition, he has worked with the European Community Youth Orchestra under Claudio Abbado, and participated in several International Horn Society Workshops.
He has given recitals and master classes throughout the world: Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Japan, China, Australia, Mexico, Canada and Israel.
Clevenger is the featured soloist on several CSO recordings, including works by Martin, Schumann, Britten and Mozart. He also played on the Grammy® Award–winning recording The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli with the brass ensembles of the Chicago, Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. He has recorded the horn concertos by Joseph Haydn and Michael Haydn with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra of Budapest as well as Mozart’s four horn concertos. The Mozart recording was named Record of the Year in Hungary, and both recordings were nominated for Grammy® awards. Clevenger also performed with Barenboim and colleagues from the CSO and Berlin Philharmonic in Chicago and Berlin on the Grammy®-winning CD of quintets for piano and winds by Mozart and Beethoven. With Barenboim and Itzhak Perlman, he recorded Brahms’ Horn Trio for HD TV, laser disc and Sony Classical CD. He performed on the Tribute to Ellington CD with Barenboim and other members of the CSO, and he has recorded Strauss’ First Horn Concerto with Barenboim and the CSO. John Williams wrote a horn concerto for him, which he premiered with the CSO in 2004.
For 17 years, Clevenger played almost regularly with the group EARS, JAZZ OF ALL ERAS. In 1985, he received an honorary doctorate from Elmhurst College. He currently is professor of horn at Roosevelt University.
Also a conductor, Clevenger served as music director of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra for 14 years. His conducting career has included guest appearances with numerous other orchestras, including the New Japan Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Roosevelt University Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Conservatory Orchestra, Northwestern University Summer Symphony, Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic, National Philharmonic of Slovakia in Bratislava, Sinfonia Crakovia and Opole Philharmonic in Poland, and Bartlesville (Oklahoma) Symphony Orchestra.
The Web site www.orchestralconservatory.com features Clevenger playing orchestral audition excerpts, with music and comments in video and audio. These are for young horn players in high school, college, conservatories and in orchestras worldwide who need an example of common horn audition excerpts to learn and imitate.
For more information on Dale Clevenger, visit www.daleclevenger.com.
July 2009
|
